


Laughter

by linkzeldi



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-07
Updated: 2016-05-07
Packaged: 2018-06-06 23:38:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6774826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/linkzeldi/pseuds/linkzeldi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Re: Gets a new visitor who makes the most annoying sounds.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Laughter

Touka dropped the book she was reading for literature class behind the counter the moment the bell ring. Even though she was mildly annoyed, she quickly put on her workface and picked up a tray. Well she looked, eccentric. Wait she remembered the face somewhat, buried away in the back cover page of one of the books he left behind.   
“Aren’t you that author?” She said in a shy and questioning voice, “Tortellini sen or something?”

“Oh goodness no! but talking about tortellinis…” her stomach began to growl and she let out a sigh of fatigue. slipping into the nearest table she picked up the menu and put it down very quickly. “do you have any kind of food? perhaps, um, pasta? gosh i’m just so hungry.”

“That’s probably for the best-if he were still around and that author showed up he’d probably do something embarrassing,” Touka said, her expression darkening for the moment, her thoughts largely elsewhere. She snapped back though and widened her smile, “Of course ma’am right away.” Within a few minutes she was sliding one of those frou frou pasta dishes on the table and sliding the tray back underneath her arm. “We also serve several different blends of cafe if you’re at all interested in that,” her voice almost mechanically reciting memorized lines as her eyes were still looking off in the distance. 

“oh my gosh! this looks so good!” sen exclaimed, when the plate was put in front of her. it didn’t take her a second for her to consume all the food in several seconds. she was already shovelling forkfuls into her mouth while the other spoke, not even chewing anything and simply swallowing it down. “–oh?” she inquired, through a mouthful. “mhm! yes please! uh, black coffee, two sugars and two creams please, just on the side though.”

“I know, imagine what it must be like working here surrounded by all this lovely food,” Touka said while looking at noodles that looked about as appetizing as a plate of worms to her. She nodded at order and disappeared, reappearing with a kettle and two side dishes she slid on the table after the cup. As she poured though she looked out the window and began to lose focus again. When she snapped back coffee was overflowing just a little bit, “Oh I’m sorry,” she said bending over to wipe it up.

“Hohoho,’ laughs, like a clumsy spider stepping on a web, disturbing the dewdrops with her many feet. They say when a centipede thinks about all of its legs moving at once, it forgets how to walk. Something like that, the noise threw her off. Brought her out of the heat haze that had hung over her all summer. Suddenyl she was drawn to this woman with the strongest emotion she had felt in a long while.

Annoyance.

Her younger self would have said something immediately to correct the situation, the wrongness in the air she felt about this green haired little imp being there. But she had grown a little bit since then, at least she liked to think. Besides, Touka was the one who had spilled coffee. It would be unreasonable to snap at the young lady for being, honestly, perfectly patient and accepting in this situation.

So Touka put on her apology face and the fake smile that came with it, and said through her teeth, “I must have made a terrible first impression, but if you ever come back I’ll give you a cup of coffee on the house.” “First impression hmmm, I’ll have to think about that,” She said, with a breathy noise that might as well have been another suppressed laugh, “But it would be a sin to turn down free coffee yes? You’ve got me in a bind miss waitress it seems like I have no choice.”

She was probably just making friendly conversation. A little dramatic, fitting for one of those author types, but friendly nonetheless. Yet Touka still felt the need to wait until after Sen had left and she was still there wiping the table clean, to mutter under her breath like a parting curse, “Of course you have a choice, don’t be dumb.”

The only response she heard was.

A soft echo in the distance.

“Ohohohoh”

Like the laughter had never left her.

She really needed to stop spending so much time alone.

–

She wasn’t surprised when the author visited Re: again. She wasn’t upset about it either, it wasn’t a happy or sad event, more a neutral thing. A lot of customers came back. True, not all of them did after she spilled on them the first day. She hoped secretly, when she heard the door ring to announce her arrival, and Touka had just flinched like she was looking away from the scene of an accident as the tousled green haired author stepped through the doorway that Brother would get the hint and wait on this customer in particular for her.

She would have been better off wishing for something more realistic.

Like Nishiki developing a less shitty personality.

Or Kaneki being the one to walk through those doors next.

“Greet the customers when they come in-“ She turned and lectured him, maybe just to delay talking a little bit longer.

“Welcome to Re:” Yomo muttered underneath his breath, like he was a guilty child being forced to make an apology, looking down on his feet, but as fake as it was Touka decided to take pity on him anyway.

“Oh, I don’t mind at all,” She offered up in a friendly way to both of them.

Don’t be so goddamn gracious. Touka thought, the she added a –please.

“One coffee then, and the same side dish as last time,” She said, holding a single finger up in the air. You expect me to remember your order out of all the customers that come here- Touka thought, even though she remembered exactly that. “Of course Miss Sen.”

There was nobody else left in the café this late so her order came up right away. Rather than follow her best instinct and go back behind the counter, Touka lingered back a little bit to watch. She watched with morbid curiosity, how the author could enjoy the food on her plate. Humans. The old man used to watch exactly like this. Unconsciously she found herself drifting off into imitating his distant, yet kind, expression until she herself was the one being observed.

Eyes on her. Like a Hawk. No, the eyes were too big and vacuous. It was something different she could not quite place.

“Miss waitress?”

Touka did something she had never done once before in her life, and shrunk back a tiny bit. “Yes, Miss Sen?” “Is there a reason you’re staring at my food, are you hungry perhaps?” She said, with a generous face that made Touka’s stomach do flips.

Or maybe that was just the idea of her eating human food.

Or maybe it was just the mere existence of this Sen woman.

That was so mean Touka! For real. This irrational annoyance for every sound that had to do with this woman’s existence, she either needed to find a reason for it or she would have to swallow it down. Touka felt guilty in a way she had not in a long time, which is why she fell back on old bad habits.

“Yeah, the management doesn’t let us snack during working hours,” Touka said in fake admission.

“You are the management though, Touka,” Renji said in a low voice from behind the counter.

Traitor.

“Ohoh, you’re very disciplined I see.” She scoped up food in her spoon and held it out in front of her in the air. With every laugh, Touka heard the sound of shattering glass. Rather than to the smart thing, and just return behind the counter and retain professional courtesy, she leaned forward. Cutely, she brushed her hair pair behind an ear so it revealed both eyes, coquetteishly even. and wrapped her mouth around the offered spoon. And again, rather than take it bit by bit and give the impression of savoring every bite, she swallowed it all at once to get it over with.

Touka reared her head back suddenly, through gritted teeth and puffed out cheeks like she was still chewing she said, “How delicious.”

It’s then when Sen lost it. What had been chuckles broke up into full blown laughter, as she fell face forward nearly into her dish and pounded the table. “Sorry-sorry” she apologized in between breaths, “It’s just, you’re very courteous too.”

Her eyes then, which before had been a warm green, pleasant like a summern’s day instantly dropped and became ice cold, “For a ghoul, I mean.”

Both Renji and Yomo froze in an instant. Sen let that oppressive atmosphere stay in the café as long as she could, almost as if she was feeding off of it. Then as quickly as it came, it was dismissed by her. She winked and showed a kakugan, “Just kidding!”

“Oh,” Was all Yomo could verbalize, probably used to this now with all his dealings with Uta.

Touka shook her hair free from the place it was tucked behind her ear, and muttered, “Asshole.”

Sen blinked and her eyes were back to their normal seafoam green. “You were so much nicer to me when I was a human.”

“I’m sorry, would you like to register a complaint?” Touka said behind a fake smile.

“No, it’s just an observation.” Sen took a pen and paper out and wrote something down incomprehensible to Touka’s eyes, not that she cared anyway, and then as quickly as she had come to the café she left. Like a sudden change in the winds. No, more like a tornado. Lik the sound of screaming the wind made when was going breakneck speeds. That annoying kind of noise.

–

Sen never seemed to need to make use of Re’s services. Nor did she seem to hunt around this area. She didn’t even have that hard of a time covering up when eating, as she must have been some kind of wonderfully talented actress. The way she always seemed to love eating in front of Touka, and the sounding out the various tastes and textures each food gave her.

Yet, she kept coming back.

Why? Touka didn’t know, probably just to spite her. And each time, she attempted to draw Touka of all people into a conversation. Though, to be fair, knowing Brother and of the two, she was the one most vulnerable to it. Soon Tortellini Sen became Takatsuki Sen. Then Takatsuki. Then back to Sen when she got annoyed with her again. She was one of those big fancy literature types that tripped Touka’s head up the most. That must have been it, why even the sound of her name sent a shiver down her spine.

Even as she went from Waitress. To Kirishima. To Touka. Then back to Kirishima again.

Touka kept the confusion she felt to herself until one day she didn’t. It was in the backroom with Nishiki as he helped her with the dishes.

“There’s this weird girl who keeps showing up at the café,” she led off with.

“Weird how?”

“Well, weird in an annoying way.”

“So you like her?”

“Wow, jumping to conclusions much?”

“Face it Touka, your way of dealing with people is just backwards. You only get annoyed by the people you like, there’s me for instance-“

“I don’t like you.”

Nishiki turned to her, and would have continued with his cocky listing of examples but he realized that, of all the examples he could have listed to proven his point, none but him were still around. “And also there’s me,” he continued, not missing a beat after that.

“Shut up you idiot.”

And that was the conversation that made her realize, Sen was sort of becoming like a friend.

It went from Sen’s probing to real conversations. They were always weird, and Touka only understood half the time. They key was listening and knowing when to say ‘uhum’. Sen almost always caught her too. She’d chuckle that obnoctious raspy laugh of hers and say ‘oh so I’m to be indulged’ but then she went on talking so who cares really. Touka hadn’t a female friend since Yoriko. And not a female ghoul friend since Hinami.

The childish high pitched scratching sound of her voice, became a fond annoyance to Touka. When Sen came around she would let her apron sag, and sit up on the counter to speak to her, the same way she would Nishiki, or, not exactly the same way really.

She looked everywhere but where Sen was, when she talked to her. No reason why. Or maybe there was a reason. Maybe she was backwards like Nishiki said.

Eventually the day came where she gave in to Sen’s requests to come behind the counter. They sat in the back room, talking about the usual, with Sen talking and Touka trying her best to listen. Understanding individual words, but having to think hard on how they fit together. When she heard Yomo come up from behind her.

He cleared his throat and asked Sen to leave.

No, now it was Miss Takatsuki.

She left like she didn’t mind at all. When Touka turned around, he already had a reluctant expression on his face.

“You can’t keep things form me Uncle, not anymore. I’m all grown up now,” She said, calling him his true name to face him directly as possible.

“Touka, you see she-“ Yomo started, and then “The old man never told you-“

–

Eto wiped the blood off of her face.

One eye, just like Touka had thought. She swallowed, empty wine glass still shaking as she held it’s thin neck between two fingers.

Yet like always, Eto handled her rudeness like she did everything else. With that smile, and that mouth that could swallow anything. She dabbled her fingers in the blood left on her face, and then splashed it onto Touka’s as well tracing the outline of the contours of her face. Touka let her get closer than she ever had before, though she didn’t know why.

“There, we match,” Eto announced.

“You’re handling this well,” Touka deadpanned.

“Which part, the revelation that I’m the one eye, or that Yoshimura’s daughter, because both of those were things I already knew.”

“I meant the part where I found out.”

“Oh, do you want me to say something like. I didn’t expect to become so close to you when I first started?”

“Ugh.” Touka sounded out.

Like their usual conversations, Eto carried on talking, unconcerned for their unusual closeness. Well, to be specific being this close to her didn’t feel unusual, and that was the unusual part. “Well I did, I just wanted to observe you you see. For my job, well, both of them, I need a lot of material and information to take in.”

Touka bashed her forehead against Eto’s. It was a little difficult considering how short the girl was. “Hey, give me a real answer, or else I’ll kick your ass for real,” she growled.

“The bird with the clipped wings is going to threaten me?” Ohohohoho, it was so grating from this close, “Well fine then, I wanted to see what my replacement would be like-“ She spoke candidly.

“Mister Yoshimura wasn’t like that,” Touka immediately snapped up in defense.

“What proof do you have of that? Is he here right now?”

“He didn’t have a choice.”

“He could have. He could have stayed and run with you. Forcing you to live on while carrying his memory, and smiling sweetly every time you think of him just because he couldn’t stand to live anymore, isn’t that just selfish of him?”

Eto’s small smile she had always let creep across her lips while she talked to Touka in the café now twisted and grew, and grew more twisted.

Then Touka averted her eyes and muttered something.

“So what.”  
She had never heard such brushing off of her own words.

“Even if he did abandon me, and I’m an orphan again, abandoned callously just like you. That doesn’t mean I go around picking at other people’s wounds-“

“Ho?”

“The only natural born one eyed ghoul, like the main character in a novel, right? The one nobody can understand.” Touka spoke aloud, “You think your’e special? You’re not. Everybody’s completely unique, and that makes them alone.”

Eto looked stunned for a second.

Then she, looking up with those big owl eyes of hers, showed every single instance of fear she had ever experienced in her past. Like that moment when your life flases before your eyes. Touka noticed them getting closer. At the end of the day, Eto could only ever use people. She had been using Touka for entertainment, or perhaps curiosity? Learning? Whatever, but with that option gone she recklessly switched to comfort.

Touka felt herself be pulled down As Eto leaned up to kiss her, Touka caught her with the palm of her hand before it could connect.

Touka heard that noise again. A laughter echoing in the distance. Only this time she realized it was her own laughter.


End file.
